EFfingham RailRoad

[Mr Fixit]

Ed the three main customers are TQW [the warehouse], the breakfast cereal plant is Hodgson Mill and the 'cement company' Mid Illinois Concrete. That leaves Harlan Bakeries in the former Krispy Kreme Manufacturing and Distribution Plant as the soon to be new customer.

Just to clarify a point Mid Illinois Concrete is a ready mix concrete batching plant business with several locations nearby the EFRR unloading pit. It is not a 'cement company' producing cement, but rather an end user of cement to make CONCRETE. Cement is to Concrete, like yeast is to bread. You wouldnt call a loaf of bread, a loaf of yeast, would do you? So why call a concrete batching plant, a cement plant when they are two entirely different businesses and processes.

The whole cement/concrete thing is just something which really bugs me.

As for the track plan, I am still working on trying to fit as much of the EFRR in my bedroom as I can, and still have a useable bedroom if at all possible. Plus I am renting, so things need to be easily relocatable as well as not fixed to the walls.

Thanks also for your interest, it helps keep me focussed.
Mark

[FCIN]

Mark;

Although it's not set in stone (concrete?) at the moment, I may be going out through Effingham next weekend on a rail fanning expedition (gas prices are the main deciding factor at this point). So if I do, I'll try and get you a bunch of photos of the area on the EFRR. I'm hoping to catch them in action if I go, so will contact them and see what days/times they may be operating. Past couple of times I've stopped by there, it was in the afternoon and everything was locked up in the TQW warehouse, but it's an interesting area just to look around, so I didn't consider it a total washout. Lot's of CN/IC and CSX action in Effingham too!

Been down that renting route myself many years ago, so understand about the necessity to try and make a layout portable or at least not have to tear completely down if you have to move. Wife and I had rented a very nice little house and I was well on the way building a layout in the basement, when out of the clear blue, the owner gave us 30 days to vacate the premises so she could move in to the house. Whole layout ended up being scrapped!

Couple of times over the past year, I've tried to come up with a reasonable representation of the EFRR to fit my bench work footprint, but since I'd have to straighten out everything (the Krispy Kreme lead and Pike St storage tracks specifically), it just never felt right to me. Even purchased a locomotive in the CGW paint scheme that EFRR uses as potential motive power, but it will end up being repainted L&N very soon.

[Mr Fixit]

Ed any and all photos would be appreciated.

Not just of the rail related stuff but also photos of the buildings. I am particularly interested in the views through the trees across the CN/CSX interchange track and photos of the radio tower nearby. I figure the radio tower will have to be painted into the backdrop because it is a visible landmark in the area.
There are also one or two concete or steel water towers nearby with Effingham Business Park [I think] written on it, which with a little geographic licence could be relocated to within EFRR grounds.
Also there is the Effingham Giant cross nearby, which just so happens to be down the road opposite Pike Avenue, so some photos of it to give some impression of just how big it seems from ground level would be good.

Naturally, common sense and personal safety have priority above all.

Mark

On the subject of gas prices, petrol in Melbourne today was going for @ $ 1.40 per litre, diesel $ 1.30 per litre and LPG $ 0.55 cents per litre.

1 US gallon = 3.7853 litres x $ 1.40 = $ 5.29 per US gallon

[FCIN]

Hi Mark;

Well it looks as though I'm going to have to postpone my trip for a while. Even though gas prices seem to be falling around here ($3.40 gallon here today); health issues are causing me to have to put this off for a while. I'm supposed to have surgery done on the old ticker, but still don't know when they plan on doing it and my doctor recommends that I not venture so far from home until this is resolved. It's like I keep telling the wife, it's a mistake for me to plan things in advance! Something will always rear its head at the last minute!

Any way, when I do get to head out that way, I'll sure keep your suggestions for photos in mind. I was planning on trying to get photos of all the rail served industries and other areas of interest. Should have done that the last time I passed through there! About all I did then was to take photos of the unused TQW cross dock building as I have considered including such a structure on my layout. Simple enough to make from a Pikestuff kit.

[Mr Fixit]

No sweat Ed, your health is more important than some photos. My Dad is to have his ticker worked on later this year, so I have some appreciation of what you are going through. On the plus side we are fortunate to live in a time and place where such operations are now considered 'normal'. Our Foreign Minister and ex Prime Minister has just had an operation on his heart where they used pig parts to replace the damaged items. The politician and pig jokes are just warming up.

Mark

[FCIN]

No sweat Ed, your health is more important than some photos. My Dad is to have his ticker worked on later this year, so I have some appreciation of what you are going through. On the plus side we are fortunate to live in a time and place where such operations are now considered 'normal'. Our Foreign Minister and ex Prime Minister has just had an operation on his heart where they used pig parts to replace the damaged items. The politician and pig jokes are just warming up.
Mark

I can just imagine the jokes that you'll be hearing! I'm having an ablation done and they regard this as "routine". It will be the second one in 5 years - I guess the warranty on the first one has expired? I've developed a different heart rate problem but they seem to think they can fix this one too. Got me on medication right now to keep it under control and the attacks are less frequent, but they do happen. It's more of an aggravation than anything else, but sure does keep me from being able to do a lot of things.

Any way, I hope to make this trip later this fall. Might actually be better in the fall - not as hot and more color.

[FCIN]

Well after convincing the wife that I'd be fine making a "short" trip, I took off in the wee hours of the morning Wednesday Aug 17th to go check out some of my favorite locations in Southern Indiana and Central Illinois, to see what was happening.

After arriving in Mount Vernon, IL, to see what was going on at National Railway Equipment, I decided to make the additional 50 mile trip North to Effingham and see what I could find. I was guessing that the EFRR would probably be working by the time I got there so off I went.

Arriving in Effingham at about 830am their time, I was having to shoot most all the photos I took looking in to what sun light there was and to the west it looked like it could start raining at any time. Not having much time to spend there, I did manage to get some shots of various industries and so forth in the area and they aren't the best quality because of the light.

Sure enough, the EFRR was "sort of" working when I arrived, but 2716 simply sat outside the south end of the TQW warehouse idling the whole time I was in the area:     Couldn't find anyone around to see if they'd being doing much and not being one to do very much trespassing, I simplly got as close to 2716 as I could and took that shot. Signs like this are posted every where around the industrial park and might be usable for you layout:    
Here's a shot of the water tower at the south end of the industrial park:     I didn't manage to get any good shots of the huge cross that is about 3/4 miles west of the park, as every field and vacant land in the park and west of the park is full of corn and soybeans. From the industrial park you are more or less looking at the cross from the side or slightly from the side and this Google street view from Raney St is a good representation of what you see from most locations in the park: http://maps.google.com/?ll=39.104265,-88....3,,0,4.73
Here's a shot at the extreme south end of the EFRR/CN(IC) interchange track at the highway overpass. That's a CN(IC) freight getting ready to depart Effingham on the left    
And a shot from the same location looking north.     Note the storage cars in the two storage tracks on the west side of the interchange track and there were a couple more on the interchange track. In fact, just about every car that I saw on EFRR tracks in the industrial park appeared to be storage cars and most were plastic pellet cars. Since the EFRR has no facility that receives plastic pellets, you can assume that these were simply in storage.

[FCIN]

Continuing with the so-so photographs. Here's a shot of the southwest corner of the TQW warehouse:     Sherwin-Williams has a large distribution facility located in the triangle between the CSX/CN interchange track and the CN main line that is not rail served, so I'm guessing that they may be receiving product via the TQW warehouse.
Here are a couple of shots of the railroad business end of the Harlan Bakeries (former Krispy Kreme facility             No sign of rail activity at this industry and judging from the number of vehicles in the employee parking lot, there aren't more than 20 or so employees currently working there.

It was at this point when I started encountering people politely asking me to leave the area. I was going to get shots of the north side of the TQW warehouse and the track side of Hodgson Mill (former Bunge facility), but as soon as I pulled down next to the Hodgson Mill track, some gentleman approached me as asked what I was doing and after telling him that I was taking photos of the rail facilities - he gave me one of those "what kind of nut are you?" looks and told me that I was trespassing and needed to leave the area. This was to be the first of two such encounters.

I can tell you this much about the Hodgson Mill facility. On the track side, there is a small truck unloading shed between the building and the siding, but no evidence of provisions for unloading flour or grain from rail cars that I could see. As I recall, Bunge just unloaded tank cars when they occupied that location, so perhaps something will come later. There were about 6 empty LP Gas tank cars sitting on the spur (more storage cars); a passenger car at the south end of the spur and; the Illinois Western geep at the north end, but no way to get photos of it. There was also a 50 foot box car with MR reporting marks sitting outside the north door of the TQW warehouse which I guessed was going to be unloaded sometime later. This is the only shot I was able to take of Hodgson before I was asked to leave    

[FCIN]

Continuing:
Here's a shot of the northwest end of Harlan Bakeries facility. You can see what I mean by every vacant lot growing corn or soybeans. Photo taken from Pike St looking past the two storage tracks there.    
Next I ventured over to Commerce Ave and Mid-Illinois Concrete to see what I could shoot there. I managed to get two rather poor photos of the conveyor system they use to unload rock from the concrete pit. Rather interesting in so far as there is a small conveyor under the pit that leads to the larger movable conveyor.         I didn't plan on getting out of the truck here, but did want to try and get close enough to get a shot of the concrete pit, but about this time a pickup truck came up behind me and the little lady driving it asked me who I was looking for. Once again told that I was a "rail fan" just trying to get photos of the rail served facilities in the park and after I got another of those "are you nuts?" looks and a big grin, she informed me that I was in a hard hat area and it would be best if I left. So I thanked her and left. Any way, I hope you can make out some of the detail of this conveyor system.

From here, I went up to Mansfield Dr to the north end of the EFRR where they connect with CSX and the location of the now apparently unused TQW crossdock. Here is a photo looking south on the EFRR showing the Mid-Illinois Concrete unloading pit area and the north end of Hodgson Mill. If you look closely, you can see the ILW geep sitting at the north end of the Hodgson spur and the truck unloading shed that has been added to that facility.    
Finally, here's a shot of the track side of the TQW crossdock and three 50ft box cars on the interchange track. Track on the right is the CSX/CN interchange track     Glad I was finally able to get an unobstructed view of the track side of the TQW crossdock, as I'd forgotten that the rail car door was off-center! Any way, fairly nice detail view of that. Certainly a structure that I'd like to include on my layout if it would fit the theme. I do plan on kit bashing a model of this structure, regardless of whether I end up using it on the layout.

That's pretty much it as far as photos went in Effingham. It was really starting to cloud up and I had a lot of territory to try and cover, so I headed on out to venture to other locations. I'm sorry that I didn't plan this out better, as I'd have contacted the EFRR and perhaps could have been given a tour of the area without being hassled and maybe even a cab ride on the 2716. But that's the price you pay when you do things on the spur of the moment. It would certainly have been better to photograph the industries in the afternoon, but I just took my chances. I do hope that business picks up for the EFRR as it appears that just about all the rail business is at the TQW warehouse right now. It is an interesting operation.

Mark, if you want the full size photos, contact me via private message and I'll arrange to send them to you.

[Brakie]

Ed,Nice photos.

Any time I run into a brick wall (No Trespassing Keep out!) I use my zoom and hope for the best.

[FCIN]

Ed,Nice photos.
Any time I run into a brick wall (No Trespassing Keep out!) I use my zoom and hope for the best.

As you can no doubt tell, that's what I had to do in several instances, not to mention a few photos where I just shot out of the window of the truck. Come to think of it, these days with the terrorism threat on everyone's mind, sitting in the truck and taking photos might be a lot more suspicious then actually getting out and taking a photo!

Have observed over the past few years that people working at industries are more likely to hassle you about taking photos then anyone on the railroad. Of course, very often a quick stop at the office to ask permission and perhaps explain why you want to take photos of the facility can even get you a guided tour. But I was pressed for time so I bypassed that step and just tried to get the best photos that I could in spite of the poor lighting conditions and trying not to get on the wrong side of the No Trespassing signs too often.

[FCIN]

Mark;

Here's one more photo that I took while in Effingham: The 198 foot high cross that stands by I-70/I-57 and that you can barely see from the industrial park     Photo was taken from a distance of approximately 600ft from the cross. Very impressive to say the least.

Sorry that I didn't think to try and take a photo of the radio tower you had mentioned, but here is a Google street view of the tower from South Raney St at Commerce Ave: http://maps.google.com/?ll=39.108019,-88...,,0,-26.16

[Mr Fixit]

A very big Thank You to you Ed for going out of your way to take these photos.

You really made my day.

Now sit down, put your feet up and have a well earned rest break.

Thanks Again Ed.

Mark

[faraway]

...The 198 foot high cross that stands by I-70/I-57...

What is the story of that huge cross? I assume it is not just a cross of the local church. Is there a memorial it belongs to?
Sorry for the question may be it is very famous to all US citizens and needs no explanation for you.

[Mr Fixit]

The easiest way to answer your question Reinhard is for you to Google Effingham Giant Cross and then check out the website by the people who built the cross and run the facility.

Basically the parishoners heard about another large cross elsewhere in the US and thought that building one in Efingham would inspire locals as well as people travelling along the two interstate highways which run nearby. Surrounding the cross are markers with the Ten Commandments.

Effingham also bills itself as the 'Crossroads of Middle America' so having a giant cross plays to that as well.

Middle America in addition to being the food bowl is also sometimes referred to as the 'Bible Belt'.

Mark